Influencer Marketing Tips

February 21, 2019

The buzzword of 2018 that will be even more relevant this year. With
higher engagement rates, more specific audience and an average ROI of 650%,
you should certainly consider influencer marketing in your next campaign.

If you are new to this topic, influencers are the online celebrities of the 21st century with thousands of followers on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Letting us into their everyday life, they can easily create a peer-feeling, the impression that we actually know them.

What works best for me?

You need to identify the people whose audience best matches your target market and your product or service. Your brand should fit well into the theme of the channel to ensure that the posts feel authentic. This will improve the effectiveness of the campaign and take the edge off the sponsored post as well.

To get a better insight to the audience of a specific account, check the recent posts. For example, what captions they used, what comments the followers wrote and how the influencer reacted to those. When analysing the follower base, keep in mind that some influencers (especially on YouTube) will have a much younger audience than themselves.

More followers, the better?

The number of followers and the nature of the influencer will both affect the pricing strategy of your campaign. For an in-depth overview of the different influencer types, read this article.

As a rule of thumb we can say, that while micro-influencers (<1,000 followers) have higher engagement rates, the reach of their posts will be significantly lower than accounts with a larger follower base. To check the basic statistic of a potential influencer, you can use the Instagram Money Calculator.

Types of Influencer Marketing

Sponsored Content

Paying influencers to post about your brand on their channel, take a selfie with the product, tag you in the caption or something more creative – anything that’s agreed in the contract.

Followers are more likely to purchase a product if their trusted Instagrammer promotes it and if it’s relevant to their content. Of course, sharing only sponsored content can undermine this trust, so make sure you work with the right people.

PR Packages

Sending products to an influencer and hoping that they will enjoy it enough to post about it is clearly a cheaper option. However, there is no guarantee that the review will be positive and that anything will be posted at all.

A creative packaging can help catching the attention of the influencer and improve your chances, just as contacting smaller influencers who receive less PR packages.

Giveaways

Surprising lucky followers with your product/service has benefits for everyone. The audience will get to know you better and the reminders to enter the game (e.g. in Instagram stories) will keep your brand top-of-mind.

The channel will earn more followers, especially when following is an entry requirement. Tagging friends in the comment section to increase the chances for winning will skyrocket your engagement rates as well.

Affiliate Marketing

Providing a special link or code to the influencer that followers can use to purchase your product, usually with a discount. It’s quite easy to track how many clicks / transactions this strategy brings from a specific account. With the discounted price, you are also likely to drive more customers to your website.

What counts as an
#ad?

Any content that is ‘paid’ (including freebies) and is controlled in any way by the parent company is an advertisement (ASA). This control can range from using specific keywords or photo settings to posting content on pre-arranged dates.

Although influencers are fully responsible for the transparency of paid posts, you, as a sponsoring brand should also monitor whether they are compliant with the guidelines. Ambiguous posts will not only impose legal risks on the influencer, but they can also have a harmful effect on the brand’s reputation.

If you haven’t already, hopefully you now see how influencers can help you in your next marketing campaign. Remember, authenticity and the right audience is key to be successful. No one has become influencer overnight, make sure you trust them and let their creativity flow.

About the author

Rebeka Daka

Rebeka is a final year Business & Management student at the University of Exeter. In her free time she loves singing and she’s training for a 30+ miles obstacle race that she documents on Instagram. 📸

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